Vie’s Verses – Are You Excited For The New Kiss Album?

On October 9th, Kiss will release their 20th studio album (I’m not including the solo albums or hits album in that count). The title of the record is Monster, but I have my doubts that it will be. Most of the regular readers of Vie’s Verses know that I am a huge Kiss fan, so perhaps I can be a bit too critical of my favorite band. I place them on a very high pedestal and only expect greatness from every record. Over the years, the band has never let me down. Even albums that casual fans think are garbage (Crazy Nights, Music From The Elder) are solid, if not great, albums, in my opinion. However, I can’t help thinking that Monster is going to suck.

The first single, “Hell Or Hallelujah,” is just terrible. There’s no way to sugar coat that, and there’s really not even much about the song that I can praise. It sounds like a left over from the Sonic Boom sessions that didn’t make the cut (and for good reason). It’s just a bad, boring song. Paul’s vocals are weak, the lyrics are pretty lame, and there is no cohesiveness to pull the song through. If this is any indication of how the rest of the album is going to sound then there will be a lot of disappointed Kiss fans. (Check out “Hell or Hallelujah” below.)

I’ll admit, I felt the same way when I first heard “Psycho Circus.” I thought that album was going to be a bomb and it turned out to be one of the better Kiss records in their catalog. After a while “Psycho Circus” even grew on me and now I enjoy the song when I hear it. But when the single was first released, I remember scratching my head, saying “what the hell were they thinking?”

Kiss is also coming off a surprisingly fantastic record. Sonic Boom was given the title of album of the year, 2009, by yours truly. It was a record that had depth, found all four members of the band taking over lead vocals at some point, and was very diverse. Yes, there were a couple of lame moments (notably Gene’s ode to women and himself on “Nobody’s Perfect”), but those moments were few and far between. Sonic Boom also gave us some gems like “Never Enough,” “Stand,” and “Say Yeah.” That was a great trade off for one lousy Gene Simmons song.

The point is that it can be very hard to follow up a terrific album with one that is equally as grand, or better. And when it comes to my favorite band of all time, I want each record to be better than the last. It’s been 3 years since Kiss released Sonic Boom, so the band has had time to craft their songs and pick out only the cream of the crop. But with tours, reality shows, art galleries, and the like, I’m not sure how much effort Kiss put into this record. I hope that I am way off the mark. I hope that Monster is one of their best records ever. However, I don’t think that it will be. I have a strong feeling that Monster is going to be a letdown.

Let’s face it, Kiss isn’t getting any younger. And as cool as he is, hearing a 65 year old Gene Simmons sing about all the ladies he wants to bed has gone from crazy cool to kind of old man perverted. That’s one of the downsides of aging. If your grandfather was talking about hooking up with some 25 year old hottie, you’d find it a little off. Yeah, it’s great that granddad still wants to do the nasty, but I’m not really sure that we want all of the details. At their age, Kiss should be maturing and writing music that reflects that. It’s not easy to do, I know. We don’t want songs about hospitals and hip surgery, but I’m not sure that I want songs about Gene getting it on in a one night stand.

In the end, Monster is going to be another record about sex and rock and roll. Perhaps it will be as good as Sonic Boom, perhaps it will be even better. I have my doubts, but again, it’s because I am very critical of the band. On October 9th, I may be in for a huge surprise. What about you? How do you think the new Kiss record is going to be? Do you think it will be a huge hit, or a complete bomb? Drop a line in the comments and let us know.

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Comments

Interesting commentary, I must say. Many good points were made. I agree that Hell or Hallelujah is a bit lame. Bad lyrics. The only thing good is that it’s the sound of Kiss. I do wonder if it’s like the first single off the Van Halen album, where Tatoo wasn’t that great, but the rest of the album was. I think Monster will be probably as good as Sonic Boom. Hopefully Tommy won’t rip off old Ace solos and make up some of his own. I think it’ll be like almost all other Kiss albums, some great, some moderate, some not so good. Gene’s an inconistent songwriter I feel. He’s got some terrific overlooked songs (Almost Human, Larger than Life) and some real stinkers (Charisma). I think we’ll get one great Simmons song, some moderate and one stinker. Most of Paul’s I suspect will be pretty good.
I can see your point about a 65 year old man singing about one night stands, but for some reason, it doesn’t bug me too much. I think in my mind, I hear the voice and connect it with days gone by.
Long and short of it is that I think Monster will be ok, but not great.